PODCASTS

​Listen to experts reveal misconceptions in the practice of talent management and put a spotlight on the truth

At Human Capital Growth, our mission is to help organizations make accurate and fair decisions about their employees. This podcast series on talent management brings you practical science-based advice on what works in the practice of people management.

10 Year Anniversary Podcast Series

To celebrate a decade of work as an evidence-based talent management firm we are hosting a podcast series featuring ten experts in evidence-based practice. From business leaders to academics and HR professionals, we will be speaking with leading researchers and practitioners. Visit us through the year for cutting-edge ideas and examples from those who are driving extraordinary outcomes using science and analytics.

Dr. Gary Latham – Goal setting: Myths and Truths

October 2018

​Google ‘goal setting’ and you get close to 500 million search results. A popular business practice with many points of view, and some management gurus touting its inefficacy. What should leaders do – abandon setting goals and resort to “do your best”? This is the question we asked Dr. Gary Latham, the world’s foremost expert on the topic of goal setting. In this podcast, he shares the scientific-evidence on three types of goals: “do your best,” “specific and challenging,” and “primed” goals. Only one of these is backed by substantial evidence, and another bears great promise but requires additional research. Dr. Latham elaborates on the conditions that make goal setting work and what not to do. A must listen for managers who set goals.

Dr. Kenneth Barr –The Importance of Courage in Leading Breakthroughs

August 2018

​Kicking off our anniversary series is our podcast with Dr. Ken Barr, an acclaimed researcher who has led several drug discovery teams around the world. He is an MIT-trained Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry with several patents to his credit. He is currently the executive director and head of R&D Strategic Global Operations at Forman therapeutics. Previously, he was with Merck, Amplyx Pharmaceutical, Sunesis, and Abbott Labs.

​We had the privilege of partnering with Dr. Barr on a project that resulted in the successful turnaround of a failing cross-border collaboration. In this podcast, we explore what it takes to lead under challenging circumstances. Listeners will learn about leading breakthroughs and the importance of courage in addressing the elephant in the room. If you have wondered why some leaders are better in shepherding transformations than others, this podcast presents several answers.

In our leadership series podcasts, we bring insights from leaders around the world. Our guest in this podcast was Mr. Pankaj Dubey, Managing Director & Country Head at Polaris India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Polaris Industries Inc. Under his leadership, Polaris India successfully launched the Indian Motorcycle and Polaris Off-road vehicles in the local market. Mr. Dubey also serves as the CEO & whole time Director at Eicher Polaris Pvt. Ltd. He has deep insights on the Indian marketplace and requirements for foreign multinationals to be successful in India. Before joining Polaris, Mr. Dubey helped Yamaha Motors expand in India through the launch of several successful brands. In 2016, he was honored with the “Top 50 Indian Icon” award, in recognition of his contributions to society and shaping its future.​

​Mr. Dubey’s journey from humble beginnings to an enviable leadership position present lessons in optimism and tenacity. In our conversation, he shared the guiding principles that have served him well and brought remarkable success. Many of these were music to our ears and seemed plucked from an evidence-based handbook on leadership. He shared stories of setting challenging goals, giving himself deadlines to achieve far-reaching goals, failing and coming back stronger using the learnings, and many more. He also provides guidance on succeeding in the Indian marketplace, the role of women in the workplace, and ends with some elevating advice for the youth of the world.

​In this podcast Dr. Subramony describes the HR Value chain and the benefits it brings to organizations. He discusses the importance of selecting the right set of practices and shares three key bundles of HR interventions that drive extraordinary outcomes. These are the talent bundle, the energy bundle, and the opportunity bundle. Listen to the podcast for advice on which one of these bundles is the most critical and has an amplifier effect.

Dr. Mahesh Subramony, PhD is an associate professor of management and the director of the Center for Human Capital and Leadership at Northern Illinois University. He teaches various human resource management (HRM) topics and organizational behavior to both undergraduate and MBA students, and conducts research related to the measurement and development of strategic human capital. Mahesh has worked in the HR function for Ford Motor Company and Whirlpool Corporation; consulted with several organizations including the Caterpillar Corporation, Follett Higher Education Group, Manpower Corporation, and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM); and conducted practitioner-oriented workshops on human capital metrics. His research has appeared in several scholarly journals including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, and the Journal of Management.

Dr. Avraham Kluger - Feedback: What works and new frontiers​April 2014

Prof. Avraham N. (Avi) Kluger is a faculty member at the Organizational Behavior unit of the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His research on giving feedback demonstrated that it can be detrimental to performance, and that even positive feedback can cause deterioration in performance. To explain the puzzle of the detrimental effects of positive feedback on performance, he proposed, with Dina Van-Dijk, that positive feedback reduces motivation when people do things out of a desire (promotion focus) and that negative feedback increases motivation when people do things out of an obligation (prevention focus). For these works on feedback, he received several awards, including (a) the 1996 Outstanding Paper in Organizational Behavior awarded by the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management (presented August 1997 in Boston) with Angelo DeNisi (b) the first William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award for the best publication in field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology during 1996 by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (presented April 1998 in Dallas) with Angelo DeNisi and (c) The 2009 Award for Best Competitive Paper by the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management with Dina Van-Dijk.

Dr. David Day - Advances in Leader Development​January 2014

In this podcast we speak with acclaimed leadership researcher and expert, Dr. David Day. If your organization is looking for more effective ways of developing leaders, here are some innovative ideas based on the most recent evidence. Dr. Day weighs in on recent fads that claim to draw from the neuroscience of leadership and points to more promising areas that help prepare leaders to operate under increasing uncertainty.

Dr. David V. Day is Winthrop Professor and Woodside Chair in Leadership and Management at The University of Western Australia Business School. Dr. Day's core research are in the areas of leadership and leadership development. He is the lead author on An Integrative Approach to Leader Development (Routledge, 2009) and the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations (Oxford University Press, 2014). He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Psychology and as a Consulting Editor for several other scholarly journals. Dr. Day is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He works with various organizations around the world on projects related to leadership and leadership development. Dr. Day was awarded the 2010 Walter F. Ulmer Research Award from the Center for Creative Leadership (USA) for outstanding, career-long contributions to applied leadership research.